Dynamo rue missed chances in 1-0 loss

After weeks of pulling out late and improbable goals to save results, the Houston Dynamo received a bitter taste of their own medicine, conceding an 86th-minute Shea Salinas goal and falling to the Vancouver Whitecaps 1-0 at Empire Field on Saturday. The loss kept Houston winless on the road this season. As if to rub salt in their wounds, the Dynamo know very well that they had their chances.

“Disappointed and angry that we let that goal in at the last little bit there,” head coach Dominic Kinnear told MLSsoccer.com by phone after the match. “We had some chances to win the game, and there were simple exercises in staying with the runners that we didn’t do.”

Despite having 57 percent of possession and taking 16 shots, the Dynamo could not find a breakthrough. Whitecaps goalkeeper Joe Cannon recorded six saves, and a long-range rocket from Adam Moffat clanged off the crossbar.

“We had some chances there on set pieces that you’d fancy us putting in,” Kinnear said. “It was 0-0 late in the game, and I think one of those would have been the winner, but it wasn’t to be.”

With another disappointing result on the road behind them, the Dynamo return to the friendly confines of Robertson Stadium for a Sunday night friendly against reigning Mexican and CONCACAF Champion Monterrey. But in the meantime, the Dynamo are left to contemplate how they missed their opportunities and how their opponents made them pay for it.

“It’s tough because we had our chances at winning the game, but we didn’t do ourselves any favors in the finishing department tonight,” Kinnear said. “I thought we played well enough to get a couple of goals tonight and feel we should’ve walked out of here with something, which is the disappointing thing.”

Darrell Lovell covers the Houston Dynamo for MLSsoccer.com. Follow him on twitter at @Dynamoexaminer.